American Tech Workers Challenge NPR's H-1B Visa Story

Source: NPR

Earlier this week, we heard from some American workers speaking about a particular kind of visa. H1-Bs are temporary work visas. They're for foreigners with special skills like computer programming. NPR's Martin Kaste reported that employers have to show that they recruited Americans first, before hiring foreigners. But, in fact, most companies do not. Martin Kaste returns to that story now.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Tuesday's story was about middle-aged tech workers who think they've been sidelined by foreigners with H1-B visas. They're a frustrated bunch, and when they heard me saying that companies are required to recruit Americans before using H1-Bs, they let me have it. One of the milder reactions came from Donna Conroy.

DONNA CONROY: You know, I thought, oh, well. There goes another report covering up the secret.

KASTE: Conroy used to work in IT. Now she runs Bright Future Jobs, a group opposed to what it considers corporate abuse of work visas. The secret, as she calls it, is this: technicalities in the law allow the vast majority of employers to skip the good faith recruiting rule. But a lot of people make the same assumption. I did. And Conroy says it's time the law caught up.

2. Here is the link to the original story

Now a look at one part of the immigration debate in Congress: a proposed increase in H1-B visas. Those are the visas that allow companies to hire skilled foreign workers. As NPR's Martin Kaste reports in today's business bottom line, offering more of those visas is controversial, especially among American tech workers of a certain age.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Here in Seattle, people still have fond memories of the 1990s tech boom.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Do you want a cup of coffee?

KASTE: Take a middle-aged computer programmer to breakfast, and he'll tell you some tales.

JOHN SCHROEDER: Basically, if you weren't drooling on yourself, we would hire you.